Bailout's Execution Draws Bipartisan Ire on Hill

$250B bailout needed to restore faith, keep capital at home

(NEWSER) - The $250 billion plan to guarantee new bank debt and unlimited bank deposits in certain accounts isn’t just an option, Treasury Secretary Paulson told the chiefs of nine banks yesterday; it’s for the good of the country. The plan, the country’s response to similar European banking actions, is engineered to quash feats that US banks will default and keep capital from flowing overseas to safer banks, the New York Times reports. More»

Demands and attitude have soured a once promising relationship between the administration and lawamakers

(NEWSER) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may have gotten what he wanted from Congress on the Wall Street bailout, but his performance in selling the deal left lawmakers with a sour taste, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many think his original proposal, which would have granted him virtually unlimited powers, and his conduct in the hot seat, were presumptuous. But no matter: “For a few months, he will be more powerful than the president,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, a bailout critic. More»

(NEWSER) - Anybody seen $700 billion? The government watchdogs charged with overseeing TARP spending don't seem able to answer even basic questions about where the money went, Chris Adams writes at McClatchy. A special inspector general, a congressional panel, and eight other inspectors general are supposed to be keeping track of the funds, but they haven't been given the tools to do the job properly, Adams writes. More»

Ex-Goldman exec coddled firm as Treasury sec, critics say

(NEWSER) - As a former Goldman Sachs exec, Henry Paulson vowed to avoid any potential conflicts of interest when he was appointed President Bush’s Treasury secretary. But seven months after he left office, the nagging questions surrounding Paulson’s tumultuous term in office suggest he may not have succeeded, Gretchen Morgenson and Don Van Natta Jr write in the New York Times. Critics remain suspicious of Paulson’s role in engineering a bailout for Goldman creditor AIG and dozens of conversations with his successor at Goldman. More»

(NEWSER) - Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson may have leaned on Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis too heavily last year when he tried to back out of a deal to acquire Merrill Lynch, say congressional investigators. In fact, a GOP briefing document says the two Bush officals "put a gun to the head" of Lewis "in order to force through a merger, even though (Lewis) felt it was his duty to his shareholders to try his luck in the legal system and back out of the deal,” Politico reports. Lewis appears before a House panel today. More»